Robert Newton, 60, from Grove, served as a driver with the Army and lost five friends to the troubles while serving in Northern Ireland in 1971.
He broke his back in service in 1975 and has been in a wheelchair ever since.
For the past 19 years he has sold poppies in Wantage and estimates he has raised £40,000 for the Poppy Appeal.
Last year, his father Arthur, 92, died while Robert was selling poppies. Robert said: “When the hospital rang to say Dad had passed, people said I should go home. But I knew he wouldn’t have wanted that. He would have wanted me to stay and sell poppies, so I did.”
He continued: “My dad was in the Army and served in Burma, where he won the Africa Star and Burma Star. The day before he died, he asked me to take him a poppy into hospital.
“When I went to see him he was at peace, wearing it.
“This year, as always, I will sell poppies from noon til night, but I will do it in my dad’s honour.
“He would have loved that.”
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